REAL ESTATE REVIEW

DuPage Airport, which has considered an Indy-car race track and a railroad freight yard for the 1,000 acres surrounding its runways, now is contemplating a high-tech park.

In the late 1980s, the airport in West Chicago purchased 1,800 acres of vacant land as a buffer.

Under fire to reduce taxes, the airport has considered selling a large chunk of the land, but the proposed uses met local opposition.

In November, House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Yorkville, came up with the idea of a technology park, which piqued the interest of Gov. George Ryan. He included in his budget plan $250,000 for a state-sponsored feasibility study.

"This would provide a whole new dimension to our economy," says West Chicago Mayor Steven Lakics.

In spite of the town's blue-collar, industrial image, high technology would make sense. The airport land abuts the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia. And leading tech companies -- including Lucent Technologies Inc. and Amoco Corp. -- already are lined up along the Interstate 88 Research and Development Corridor to the south.

Dedicated technology parks, however, have proved to be a tough sell around Chicago. The Northwestern University/Evanston Research Park was established in 1985 on 24 acres adjacent to the school's campus and so far has managed to develop just 300,000 square feet, far short of its goal of 1 million square feet. Land is being sold off for stores and movie theaters.

In fact, there are only a handful of research parks in the U.S. that are 1,000 acres or larger, and they have taken decades to bring along.

It may be months before a feasibility study is launched. And DuPage isn't likely to fill 1,000 acres' worth of research and development facilities. "Realistically, I don't think a high-tech park will take all 1,000 acres," concedes Gordon Cole, executive director of the airport. "I'd like to see some other uses mixed in."

State Sen. Beverly Fawell, R-Glen Ellyn, still hasn't forgotten the 500-acre railroad freight depot proposal advanced last year by Dallas-based Union Pacific Corp. "The UP actually had the money and was serious about its plan. I think we should still look at that," Sen. Fawell says.